title: An instrument to assess nurses' and care assistants' self-efficacy to provide a palliative approach to older people in residential aged care: a validation study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the psychometric properties of the 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale', an instrument designed to assess clinicians' degree of confidence in engaging in patient and family interactions at the end-of-life.
  
  
  METHODS
  The instrument was administered to 405 aged care professionals employed in nine aged care facilities. Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency statistics were undertaken.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A two-factor solution of the 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' was extracted with factor loadings above the 0.4 cutoff. Cronbach's alpha of the scale and subscales ranged from 0.87 to 0.92. The 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' demonstrates good validity and reliability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 'Palliative care self-efficacy scale' can be a useful tool in assessing and monitoring clinicians' perceived capacity to provide a palliative approach. Further evaluation in other samples and settings is required.
authors.affiliation: Palliative Nursing, School of Nursing, Sydney, The University of Notre Dame, Australia. jphillips@stvincents.com.au
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Yenna
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Salamonson
authors.forename: Patricia M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Davidson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D006801:Humans; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care; D020377:Self Efficacy